Systems and methods for providing multiple simultaneous calls from the same prepaid account
AssigneeVerizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
InventorsGregory L. Mumford, Jon E. Abel, David A. Fitzgerald, Radhika Gunasekar, Anna Marie Appleby, John M. Leslein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Prepaid services include associating a plurality of users with a prepaid services account. The account is configured to track a prepaid balance associated with the account as well as to allow at least a subset of the plurality of users associated with the account to draw down the prepaid balance at least generally at the same time. Drawing down the prepaid balance includes allocating a portion of the prepaid balance to each respective user, monitoring a provision of service, and repeating, selectively, the allocating and monitoring.
Claims14
A method implemented by at least one non-transitory device, the method comprising:
- associating a plurality of users with a prepaid services account;
- tracking a prepaid balance associated with the prepaid services account;
- deriving a total burn rate, of the prepaid services account, based on summing a burn rate, associated with a rate at which at least each user, of a subset of the plurality of users, draws down the prepaid balance;
- determining whether to recharge the prepaid services account based on the prepaid balance, the total burn rate of the prepaid services account, and a maximum recharge time for the prepaid services account;
- allocating a portion of the prepaid balance to the at least a subset of the plurality of users based on the determination;
- recalculating the burn rate based on a change in the at least a subset of the plurality of users;
- and
- providing a service to the at least a subset of the plurality of users based on the allocation.
A system, comprising:
- a memory to store a prepaid balance associated with an account;
- and
- at least one call processing server, associated with a group of callers, to:
- derive a total burn rate of the account based on a rate at which the group of callers draws down the prepaid balance;
- determine whether to recharge the account based on the prepaid balance, the total burn rate of the account, and a maximum recharge time for the account;
- allocate a portion of the prepaid balance to the group of callers based on the determination;
- provide a service to the group of callers based on the allocation;
- and
- calculate a service increment, for each caller of the group of callers, where the service increment is based on a burn rate associated with each caller of the group of callers and the prepaid balance.
A non-transitory device implemented method, comprising:
- maintaining an account having a prepaid balance, where the account is to track a usage of prepaid telecommunication services;
- associating a plurality of originating callers with the account;
- monitoring telecommunication service concurrently provided to at least a subset of the plurality of originating callers;
- dividing the telecommunication service into one or more periods of time;
- repeatedly allocating a portion of the prepaid balance to each originating caller of the at least a subset of originating callers for each period of time;
- calculating a total burn rate, of the account, by summing a burn rate associated with each originating caller of the at least a subset of the plurality of originating callers;
- dividing the prepaid balance by the total burn rate to obtain a result;
- comparing the result to a maximum recharge time for the account;
- determining whether to recharge the account based on the comparison, and
- recalculating the burn rate, for each originating caller of the at least a subset of the plurality of originating callers, based on a change in the at least a subset of the plurality of originating callers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.